


The Two Souls

by Akuroi



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-13
Updated: 2020-01-13
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:27:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22244848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Akuroi/pseuds/Akuroi
Summary: The fàble of a child who once lived alone upon the moon.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Male Character





	The Two Souls

Once upon a time – in the world that came before or perhaps it is the world that is to be – there was a boy who lived alone on the moon.

  
He languished there, in solitude and without purpose. For the moon was forevermore lifeless and grey, without distinction and without contrast. And so, the boy as well knew not distinction and contrast, knew not love or hate or joy or sadness and anything in between. For how could a boy learn of such things in a land so empty of everything?

  
And so, he existed – blind and deaf and mute and unfeeling and still, like the cold stone around him. He saw nothing with eyes that had never opened. He heard nothing with ears that had never listened. He touched nothing with hands that had never held anything. And he felt nothing with a heart that did not beat.

  
Yet one day, someone suddenly appears to him.

  
“Dear friend, dear friend!” A girl of flame called from the rays of the sun, with a grin brighter than any star, “Come and talk with me! For company is sweet and an open ear, even sweeter!”

  
But the boy does not understand. For here in the vast expanse of nothingness, there was nothing he wished to tell. Nothing he wished to convey. Nothing he wished to say. So, confused and yet curious, the boy asks,

  
“For what reason must we speak?”

  
“Oh, dear friend,” the girl laughed, “is that not a bleak question? Better yet, is it not better to ask, ‘for what reason must we not’?”

And so, they spoke, and they answered. Questions of their worlds, questions of existence and questions of each other. The boy, once endlessly silent, now draws breath after breath for every uttered sentence. He speaks and speaks and speaks until the light fades and the girl bids him a peaceful sleep.  
“I’ll return upon the morrow!” She said, waving goodbye with a bright smile as she flickered away.

  
“Tomorrow.” He said.

  
The next day, true to her word, the girl comes again.

  
“Dear friend, dear friend!” She calls merrily from over the horizon, “Come and sing with me! For a song shall surely bring a smile to your lips!”

  
But the boy frowns. He is confused once more. For how could one who had never felt happiness or sorrow or excitement or anger know what it is to express such things? So, he asks,

  
“What is a song?”

  
“Oh, dear friend,” the girl smiled knowingly, “If you wish to know what makes a song, then you need merely shout your heart to the heavens and let the stars listen to what comes.”

  
And so, they played, and they sang. The girl laughs and dances in a harmonious serenade. Her grand wings of light burn with luminous beauty, and the boy cannot help but watch her radiant grace. And as he does, the boy – once endlessly cold – feels his lips slip into the barest shard of a simper as his heart begins to race.

  
Yet, as she had done so before, the girl bids him farewell upon the arrival of the twilight.

  
“I’ll return upon the morrow.” She said with a tired grin, disappearing into motes of luminescence as he raised a hand and waved goodbye.

  
“Tomorrow.” He said in turn and wondered when it was that he began to notice the suffocating silence that fell upon the barren moon.

  
The next day, as promised, the girl comes again.

  
“Dear friend, dear friend. Come and fly with me. For the stars are eager for our company this day.”

  
Curious, the boy tilts his head. For how could someone who had never sought the horizon beyond know how to reach for the veil? How could someone who had never walked know how to stand and leap and seek the mysteries that lay past the scope of light and beyond the reach of dark? So, he asks,

  
“Where should we go?”

  
“Oh, dear friend,” the girl took his hands into her own, “An adventure has no true need of a destination.”

  
And so, they rose, and they soared. Pinions of dust gather and spread across the boy’s back as hand-in-hand with his friend, they raced across the cosmos. And as they do, the boy – once endlessly apathetic – sets his eyes upon creation with bated breath. He greets the sun and the heavens like old friends as they dashed through all of existence on flickering wings.

  
Yet, as was expected, when they return upon the dim light of a weary sun, the girl bids him farewell.

  
“Goodbye, dear friend.” She said with a somber smile, stepping away and fading into motes of iridescence.

  
“Tomorrow?” He asked hopefully, alone on the grey moon as the girl faded away.  
But when dawn came, no sign of the girl came with it.

  
Alone again, the boy looked towards the horizon as he had always done. He gazed at the heavens and knew something was lacking. He gazed at the stars and could not understand why they were silent. He gazed at the once bright cosmos and wondered when its splendor had become so faint and muted.

Questions rage in his mind, and eventually, he realizes that he would not get his answers here.

  
Slowly, the boy stands.

  
His wings spread, gleaming in the light of the sun like a kaleidoscope, and with a single, unexplainable longing in his heart, he takes flight once more. He climbs, higher and higher, until the sun itself notices his rise.

  
“Child of the Moon,” It stops the boy, “For what reason hast thou abandoned thine home?”

  
“I wish to see my friend.”

  
“And yet she is gone. Spirited away to the veil beyond time. To the world across our own. To a place we cannot reach. Knowing this, dost thou still wish to seek her?”

  
“I do.” The boy answers without hesitation.  
“Ah…I see. Just as the Child of the Dawn hast taught thee of companionship, so too hast thou learned of loneliness. Just as she hast taught thee of happiness, so too hast thou learned of grief. Just as she hast taught thee of thine heart, so too hast thou learned of thine self.”

  
The sun wept in sympathy.

  
“Oh, misfortunate Child of the Moon. Hear mine humble self. Though thine friend is far, not all hope is lost. She waits still, in the realm beyond realms. Asleep and frozen within the threads of time. Bound and imprisoned in a place that both exists and does not exist. Shouldst thou reach her, only then will she awaken once more.”

  
“How do I find this place?” The boy asked desperately.

  
“Thou must search. Search without end – without falter. Strive and struggle with all thine might to reach that impossibility. Never waver in thine faith in her. Believe that just as thou seeketh your friend, thy friend awaits thine own arrival. Then and only then may you reunite with the Child of the Dawn.”

  
And so, with steel in his eyes and a hope in his heart, the boy thanks the sun and flies away.

  
Relentlessly, he pursues that dream. Believed that just as he sought her, she awaited him. Even as eons passed and the stars of old were swallowed by oblivion, the boy continues to search for the girl. He sails across the universe with wings of stardust, a sojourn that was perhaps without end and without rest.

  
Yet he continues, regardless.


End file.
